Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 951 - 5. Client Use of ARP

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### 5. Client Use of ARP

The client PROM must contain a simple implementation of ARP, e.g. the address cache could be just one entry in size. This will allow a second-phase-only boot (TFTP) to be performed when the client knows the IP addresses and bootfile name.

Any time the client is expecting to receive a TFTP or BOOTP reply, it should be prepared to answer an ARP request for its own IP to hardware address mapping (if known).

Since the bootreply will contain (in the hardware encapsulation) the hardware source address of the server/gateway, the client MAY be able to avoid sending an ARP request for the server/gateway IP address to be used in the following TFTP phase. However this should be treated only as a special case, since it is desirable to still allow a second-phase-only boot as described above.

Next: 6. Comparison to RARP

Connected: An Internet Encyclopedia
RFC 951 - 5. Client Use of ARP